Street photography of London

Super cars come to town

Summer in Knightsbridge means super cars. The rich people of Gulf states like Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates escape to London to get away from desert summer temperatures. And they bring their cars with them.

In their wake come (usually) young men (and some women) and children with their cameras and phones to bag pictures of cars they don’t usually get to see.

And these guys are serious about their cars. They film the details and they’ll chase a car down the street to get photos.

But not any old expensive car will do. They’ll ignore the plethora of Rolls Royce’s and Bentleys pulling up at the back of Harrods to pick up shopping. They’ll walk past a Porsche or an Aston Martin. They’ll photograph the odd Mercedes, but it has to be special. What these guys are after ends in an ‘i’ — Ferrari, Bugatti, Maserati, Lamborghini, Pagini.

The arrival of the super cars isn’t without controversy. Local residents have campaigned to have restrictions on them — not least because they are very loud and drivers have been known to race and perform stunts in their cars at night. So the local council has introduced a Public Space Protection Order in the area, which means that drivers could be fined up to £1000. But with the money some of these drivers have, that could be small beer and not deter them at all. This summer could be interesting in Knightsbridge!